Jun
22
This post is somewhat longer than usual. Sorry for that, but I put a lot of work into it. I hope you like it.
Last Wednesday during my regular bi-weekly business mentoring tele-conference I revealed several powerful business success secrets.
While I was specifically addressing entrepreneurs, small business owners and sales professionals, these principles apply to all people and to all areas of our lives, not only business success.
Have you noticed? The year 2008 is half over.
Near the end of 2007 I posted Personal Development: 10 Simple Success Strategies to “help turbo charge your personal development in the New Year”. This may be worth re-reading if some of your goals and objectives have lost much of their earlier inertia.
Commitment
What are you committed to?
Mike Hernacki in The Ultimate Secret to Getting Absolutely Everything You Want wrote:
“In order to accomplish something, you must know what you want and be willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish it.”
It sounds too simple, doesn’t it? However, it is your intention and commitment that set The Law of Attraction into motion on your behalf.
Want proof?
Reflect back on your most important accomplishments, such as raising a child, getting a college degree, running a marathon, starting a business, or developing an Internet presence, and you’ll agree that your commitment to your success was absolute.
It wasn’t that you felt obligated. Rather you felt that the goal was extremely important to you, and that you would deal with any obstacle that might arise — without knowing in advance exactly what would be demanded of you on your way to success.
Without total commitment The Law of Attraction would have probably delivered an obstacle that you would not have been willing to handle, and you would have failed.
This success secret is so important that I’ve read Mike Hernacki’s timeless book about a dozen times over the past decade.
Acquiring New Skills
I am commited to ongoing personal development and acquisition of new knowledge and skills. I read mind expanding books, blogs and e-books.
Your objective may require the mastery of new skills – or it may not. Your willingness to do what it takes is what really matters. If new skills are required, then you must be ready and willing to learn them.
Working Hard
You may be required to apply a great amount of effort. When I wanted to run the New York Marathon in 1984, strenuous preparation was absolutely necessary. In 1985 that was still true but to a lesser extent, since I had maintained a high level of fitness in the interim.
Tenacity and Persistence
Let’s bring this home.
You want to develop a presence at one of your favorite social networking sites – or you want to write a blog – or you want to build an Internet presence. These objectives usually require a high degree of tenacity.
So often people abandon online social networking, blogging or social media optimization without realizing their objectives. They weren’t willing to persist. Perhaps their belief system was weak.
I have been social networking online for many years. I have continuously posted to this blog for nearly eight months.
Why?
I know what I want, and I’m willing to persist until I achieve it.
Belief
As I stated in Personal Development: The Law of Belief, “Our motivation and how we act is determined by our underlying beliefs.
“If we don’t believe that something is possible, we won’t even try to make it happen. Please listen to a conference call I recorded on 8/22/07 that illustrates this concept.”
A healthy belief system is critical to success in business and life.
Treat Your Business Like a Business
Production
Showing up counts for something, but it doesn’t count for enough.
Success in business and life depends on producing value either directly or indirectly through people you influence.
If you have a job and don’t produce, you won’t get very far, and sooner or later you won’t have a job.
If you have a business and don’t produce, you won’t have money in the bank.
If you don’t come through for people, you won’t have their friendship.
You must make a positive contribution in order to be successful.
One way to ensure that you’re productive is to set daily or weekly goals or benchmarks.
For example, let’s suppose you’re in sales. You need to make six product sales per month to meet your business objectives. In order to make six sales, you need to make 15 presentations. To get 15 appointments, you’ll need to speak to 60 people.
You work about 20 days per month. On average you will have to speak to three people per day in order to speak to 60 per month.
Your benchmark or goal becomes three a day. If you focus on 3+ per day with consistency, you will likely make your six product sales per month.
You’ve succeeded at breaking down your abstract monthly goal into concrete daily actions.
Diversification
Big corporations employ a wide variety of media and messages to bring their product to market. They advertise on television, radio, in print and through direct mail. They experiment with many versions of their ad copy.
You cannot do everything a giant company can do, but why not learn from their example?
If you use half a dozen methods to reach out to your potential clients, you’ll enjoy these benefits:
- You’ll achieve success with some approaches, even if others fail.
- You’ll attract a wider variety of clients than using a single method.
- You’ll be able to see which methods perform better relative to each other, so that you can refine your marketing plan.
- You’ll lower your overall risk through diversification.
Here are some of my favorite marketing channels:
- Online social networking at social networking sites
- Offline business networking at a business networking group such as Network Plus, facilitated by Ted Fattoross, the group’s founder
- My Online Social Networking blog that you’re reading right now coupled with keyword research and search engine optimization
- Social media sites and social bookmarking sites
- Classified advertising in small weekly newspapers
Over time you’ll develop your own favorite marketing channels if you haven’t already done so.
Tracking and Analysis
If you want to make informed business decisions, you must track your results and analyze your data. If you can’t do it yourself, then you must get an expert to do it for you or show you how to do it.
Tracking and analysis are not something optional.
Let me ask you, would you even consider driving your car with your eyes shut?
You can’t afford to run your business with your eyes shut or even partially covered.
Cost per Acquisition
One of the most basic marketing measurements is cost per acquisition, the amount that you’re spending on average to complete a sale using each marketing method. Simply put, it’s the total spend divided by the total number of sales.
It is important to consider your staff costs including your own time, not just the out-of-pocket expenditures for design and media.
Cost per acquisition is an excellent way to compare marketing channels, but there is one very important caveat. Customers from one marketing channel may be more valuable than from another. Therefore marketers must take into account customer long term value, the other side of the equation.
Customer Long Term Value
Customer long term value can be difficult to calculate, but it is generally approximated as the income you expect to earn from a customer over a 12 to 24 month period. If your business is on the risky side, lean towards 12 months. If it is very stable, then 24 months may be appropriate.
To be successful, cost per acquisition cannot exceed customer long term value. It ought to be less.
Trend Data
You can also track your performance or the performance of your staff. Trending performance data and marketing data over time will help you see the bigger picture.
Masterminding and Mentoring
As stated in my post Even Mentors Need Mentors, “I learn from reading many books, e-books and blogs, and from speaking frequently with friends and mentors. Having mentors has greatly shortened my learning curve.”
Masterminding with your peers and seeking out mentors will help you as much or more than any other single strategy mentioned in this article.
Please feel free to comment and share those strategies that have made the biggest difference in your business and personal endeavors.
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Mar
2
Personal Development: Intention
Filed Under Favorite Posts, Personal Development and Success, books | 5 Comments
I promised in my recent post on The Law of Belief that you would hear more from me on the subject of changing beliefs. I said that I would discuss replacing disempowering beliefs with empowering ones.
I’m not ready for a broad treatment of the subject. However, after Robin’s touching comment I feel compelled to write something more without delay.
Robin’s words inspired me to pick up and re-read one of my favorite books, The Ultimate Secret to Getting Absolutely Everything You Want, written by Mike Hernacki in 1982.
What is “the ultimate secret”?
Know what you want and be willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish it.
This is called intention. It is tied in with commitment and is one of the critical success factors.
Please, don’t say “duh” or tell me it’s merely a matter of semantics.
Most people have difficulty with either the “know what you want” part or the “be willing to do whatever it takes” part of the principle, and Hernacki’s book addresses this difficulty. The book also explains how the Law of Attraction comes into play.
The Ultimate Secret has been in and out of print a number of times since its publication in 1982. I suggest you buy it now while it’s available. Over the years I have repeatedly bought and given away copies of this book to my friends. I read it myself over and over again and grow from it each time I do so.
In connection with Robin’s remarks, I want to focus on the “willing” part of the formula.
Mick Hernacki says that we must have a sense or a belief from the outset that we will be able to handle anything that comes our way — “whatever it takes”. All accomplishment stems from this particular form of belief even if we’re not consciously aware of it.
Here’s the good news as I see it.
We don’t have to line up all our beliefs like ducks in a row to be successful. the only belief we need to succeed at something is the belief that we can handle whatever challenge that might arise with respect to that one objective. One empowering belief can bring enormous success even if our overall belief system is far from perfect in other respects.
When I prepared to run the New York City Marathon in 1984 and 1985, I knew precisely what I wanted — to complete the marathon.
I assure you that I didn’t have my act together at all. However, I did have confidence that I’d be able to overcome all obstacles — discouragement from friends, athletic injuries, rain, snow, cold weather, hot weather, lack of sleep, and whatever would come my way.
I did just that.
I even dealt with severe leg cramps both years towards the end of the race.
What a wonderful accomplishment this was! I even have a picture from 1985 which I may very well scan some day and post online for my readers to gawk at.
So my advice to you is to know what you want. Be passionate about it. Be open-minded too. And believe that you will handle whatever challenges lie in your path. Your eventual success is assured.
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Feb
22
Personal Development: Consistency
Filed Under Networking and Marketing Strategy, Personal Development and Success, Social Media and Social Networking Sites | 3 Comments
We both know that consistency is important. We’ve heard it over and over since we were kids. But just how important is it?
Obviously if we take no action we go nowhere.
But what if we have a bias for action? How much do we benefit?
We benefit in two ways:
- Multiplication of Effort. Can you learn a foreign language or a difficult subject in 30 minutes? You can if it’s 30 minutes per day. That’s 15 hours per month or 180 hours per year. Over the course of the year you gradually master the language or the concepts that you’re studying.
- Compounding of Results. If you’re a social networker, here’s where you get a big payoff. Every person you meet knows other people. The bigger your network grows, the more people who you don’t know will reach out to you to connect. You apply the same constant effort, yet your results increase exponentially.
When I first joined the LinkedIn community, I spent time each day seeking out and adding new contacts. Today I have more than 2,000 direct contacts and a LinkedIn network of nearly eight million people. Do you think I still need to look for people to invite?
Perhaps I should, but I get a half a dozen requests per day sitting back and doing nothing. People are easily finding me through my existing contacts, because I took the time to build a large network.
No matter what you’re looking to accomplish, why not break it down into small daily actions as I suggest in Critical Success Factors?
Establish daily benchmarks for yourself. Meet one person per day. Walk a mile or two. Save a few dollars. Give something to charity. You get the idea.
Multiply your daily effort by the number of days in a month or in a year, and you’ll be astonished at your potential for achievement. Add compounding of results or compounding of interest, and your consistent effort will have a profound effect on your life, as well as the lives of the people who matter the most to you.
Get started now, and please remember, as Mike Litman says, “You don’t have to get it right. You just have to get it going!”
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Feb
11
Personal Development: The Law of Belief
Filed Under Favorite Posts, Laws and Rules of Thumb, Personal Development and Success, books | 17 Comments
More Critical Success Factors
In my previous post, The Go-Giver, I discussed a new book, The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea
In another favorite post, 10 Simple Success Strategies, I suggested techniques for coping with day-to-day challenges.
In this post I want to present four laws of success that are psychological, spiritual and metaphysical in nature.
- The Law of Belief. Our motivation and how we act is determined by our underlying beliefs. If we don’t believe that something is possible, we won’t even try to make it happen. Please listen to a conference call I recorded on 8/22/07 that illustrates this concept.
- The Law of Expectation. This is briefly mentioned in the second chapter of The Go-Giver. Our subconscious minds manifest that which we focus on.
- The Law of Attraction. This is the essence of The Secret
book and video. The universe manifests that which we focus on. This is the spiritual or metaphysical counterpart of the Law of Expectation.
- The Law of Appreciation. By recognizing the good in our lives, we show the universe that we’re ready to attract and receive more good. Appreciation accelerates the re-ordering of things and events in the universe, so that good comes to us easily and swiftly.
It’s The Law of Belief that determines how we think, what we focus on, how we act. It determines everything!
Belief is the missing ingredient without which all great ideas, books and courses change nothing. And that’s why all the fantastic personal development books have little or no effect on our lives. Our belief systems are strongly entrenched, and we are unable to assimilate and integrate what we learn.
There is hope, however, as I’ll explain soon in a future post. I promise.
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Feb
6
Books: The Go-Giver
Filed Under Favorite Posts, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Personal Development and Success, Testimonials, books | 6 Comments
Nearly 100 years ago Wallace D. Wattles wrote a short book, The Science of Getting Rich. Wattles inspired Napoleon Hill and others to write about the power our thoughts have over the world around us, and about the beneficial consequences of having certain beliefs and acting in a certain way.
The Secret book and video recently repackaged this body of knowledge for mass consumption. Whether all the hoopla over The Secret will have been justified by a tangible positive shift in peoples’ lives remains to be seen. I’m not at all aware of any new paradigm shifts in the world at large since The Secret was distributed.
I don’t want to sound cynical, because I’m really not. And I love personal development books and courses. Nevertheless, I cannot help but notice that despite the course’s apparent lack of impact, its promotion was a huge marketing success.
The success of The Secret hasn’t stopped with the book and the video. Bob Proctor and his Science of Getting Rich program have seemingly managed to keep the momentum and monetization of that momentum going.
Is this the only way to spell $u¢¢e$$?
Meanwhile, two accomplished social networking experts and authors, Bob Burg and John David Mann, brought out their new book, The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea
This short book teaches us how to achieve success by relating an inspiring parable about an ambitious young man named Joe and his encounter with The Old Man. We learn The Five Laws of Stratospheric Success as well as the importance of applying them as soon as we learn them. Each of the laws is exquisitely illustrated within the narrative.
The first law, The Law of Value, that “your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment,” is also exemplified by the authors’ present undertaking. They and their publisher have made this wonderfully written hard cover book available through Amazon.com
It’s one of those books that I know I will re-read again and again in the months and years to come. Each time I will progress farther to integrate and internalize The Five Laws in my life.
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Jan
27
Alternative Careers
Filed Under Career Choices, books | Leave a Comment
This is my first post to address alternative careers.
Many people who entered the workplace 10, 20, or more years ago are reconsidering their career choices.
In some cases, the decision to seek a new occupation is motivated by the desire for a change. In other instances, external factors are forcing people who enjoy their work to turn to alternative occupations.
Case in point: The information technology profession has been greatly affected by offshore outsourcing which – despite generating a fraction of the media coverage it received several years ago – continues to be used by companies as a cost control measure … and at a rate that is only increasing.
Thousands of computer professionals affected by offshoring have already switched to teaching, nursing and other occupations they believe will protect them from the practice. And those who remain in the IT field continue to be concerned about offshoring’s potential impact on the security of their jobs.
However, to the extent that computer professionals feel threatened by offshoring – or have already made 180-degree career changes – it may reflect their lack of information about the importance of computer knowledge in occupations that are not on the traditional IT career path.
A new book, Debugging Your Information Technology Career, addresses this lack of information. The author, Janice Weinberg, a friend for more than 20 years, is a Connecticut career consultant who was formerly a computer professional at IBM and GE.
If you know a computer professional – or someone who is considering becoming one – you may want to tell them about this book, which I believe they’ll find both enlightening and encouraging.
More information about Debugging Your Information Technology Career is available at Janice’s Career Solutions website.
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Jan
17
Online Social Networking: Get More Personal
Filed Under Favorite Posts, Networking and Marketing Strategy, communication | 7 Comments
Communication is the backbone of online social networking.
In my post of November 11th I discussed the “High Tech/High Touch” concept, and on November 13th I discussed different forms of communication and “the asynchronous nature of social networking sites”.
According to the principle of “High Tech/High Touch” we need more rather than less intimate communication in these digital times.
Social networking sites present us with excellent tools to communicate asynchronously through commenting, messaging, posting bulletins and posting blogs.
There are new advances almost daily, but social networking sites still only partially address our need to relate more intimately in real time through synchronous channels such as instant messaging, telephony, video and face-to-face meetings.
To network more successfully, get more personal!
One thing that might hold you back is a concern for your personal security, especially if you’re a woman, and even more so if you’re a single woman. I will suggest several ways to mitigate this concern.
You could also be uncomfortable getting closer to a certain individual (hopefully not me LOL). Rely on your instincts and intuition. Exercise good judgment — but don’t be overly paranoid.
Here are my favorite ways to ensure a modicum of privacy while taking communication to the next level. They complement networking on any site.
- Get a headset with a microphone for US$20 or so, and download Skype to your computer. Skype lets you talk for free and anonymously to other users all over the world. It also permits small conference calls. With a headset both of your hands will be free to operate your computer or to take notes.
- Give out your cell phone number. You’ll enjoy the convenience of speaking anytime anywhere without revealing your full name or your address. Some disadvantages of using your cell phone are that you might incur cost and that you may receive annoying calls from time to time. You must decide for yourself whether it’s worth it.
- Get your own free conference number and PIN. You and your friend can call in at the same time to speak. If it’s your conference line, you can be sure that there’s no way to capture your phone number. The main down side here is that this protects you but not the other person.
- Install Trillian on your computer. Trillian lets you instant message people on Yahoo, MSN, ICQ and AIM all from one program. Instant messaging is not as good as talking, but it’s real time and interactive — definitely a step in the right direction.
- Starbucks anybody?
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Dec
30
Law 2: People Not Systems
Filed Under Laws and Rules of Thumb, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Personal Development and Success | 8 Comments
As 2007 draws to a close I’m going to share with you something that can make all the difference between success and failure in the coming year.
Your inbox is filled to the brim with ca-ca touting the latest greatest system, juice drink, compensation plan, survey site, list building techniques, Web 2.0 course, etc. etc.
How do you react?
“Maybe at last this one will work. I sure hope. All the others were scams. It better not cost anything.”
Ya-da ya-da ya-da.
Friend, I have to tell you this.
Law Number 2: Business success is centered around people not systems, products, compensation plans or techniques.
The number one person is you. Invest in your continuuing education and personal development. Be willing to change.
Next come your mentors to guide you and “tell it to you like it is”.
Finally there are the people who look up to you. Learn what they really want and need and dedicate yourself to helping them get it.
Focus on people and relationships, and you’ll be more successful in 2008.
Find the right mentor and make a commitment to learn and grow. Everything else will gradually fall into place.
Or focus on systems, products, compensation plans and techniques, and 2008 will be deja vu all over again.
I wish you a healthy, happy and prosperous new year.
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Dec
26
You Don’t Have to Get It Right
Filed Under Favorite Posts, Personal Development and Success | 1 Comment
Have you ever failed to take action because the time didn’t feel right or you you hadn’t dotted all the i’s and crossed all the t’s on your plan? Do you find yourself caught up in analysis paralysis?
Let me share something with you that I leaned from Mike Litman. Then tell me that you’ll change. Tell me that you’ll live by this rule in 2008. Wow! I’m beginning to sound like Mike.
“You don’t have to get it right. You just have to get it going!”
You don’t have to wait for everything to be perfect. Everything will never be perfect.
Think about something that will move your life or your business forward that you have been putting off and get it going NOW. Because you don’t have to get it right. You just have to get it going!
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Dec
17
Personal Development: 10 Simple Success Strategies
Filed Under Favorite Posts, Personal Development and Success | 7 Comments
Critical Success Factors
With 2008 right around the corner let me share some simple strategies that can help turbo charge your personal development in the New Year.
Each idea stands alone. Use one or use them all. Add your comments to this post to share your own personal insights and success tips.
- Power down your computer. Take a break. Stop e-mailing and messaging. Tackle the important things waiting for you offline. Meet with people. Make important phone calls. Get some exercise.
- Prioritize. Before you go to bed ask yourself, “What can I do tomorrow that will take my business or personal life forward?” Write six or more things you can accomplish the next day on an index card and rank them in order of importance. The following day get the top six things done in the order of importance. Follow this formula for 30 days, and you’ll be amazed at what you can achieve.
- Acquire mentors. The most successful people know better than to go it alone. Be willing to accept advice, to stretch and to change. Your mentors might coach you one-on-one, in a group, or through their speaking or writing. Like a computer you need good programming and input to produce good output. I have several mentors and advisors including more than one close friend and a senior manager at the corporation where I work.
- Meet new people online and offline and really get to know them.
- Profit in the margins. Supposing you earn $60,000 per year which is $5,000 per month. If you can increase your earnings or cut your expenses by $250 per month that would reflect 5% of your income. However if your current savings or disposable income is $500 per month, the additional $250 would give you 50% more to work with. You can save it, pay down credit cards, or buy a new outfit.
- Start a home business, a sensible one, to increase your income. Choose a mentor to guide you and help you. You can only work so many jobs, so you need a way to leverage your time. As your business grows, so will the leverage it affords you. But beware. Before you start a home business you ought to read Home Based Businesses Don’t Work.
- Exercise moderately almost every day. It is so easy to get busy and push it off. I’m adding walking to my daily list of priorities effective immediately.
- Be grateful for all the good in your life. Don’t let unfulfilled desires negate all the good. If you are reading this post, be grateful that you can. Take a deep breath right now and appreciate that you are alive. I appreciate you!
- Praise the people in your life. They need it. They crave it. Don’t criticize. Spread around more of your love, and it will come back to you with interest.
- Give to charity, a little or a lot according to your means. It will help you as much as it helps the receiver.
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